I'm officially a big bad 21 year old! My dinner/the madness afterwards went perfectly. I took a shot of patron with my dad and 2 of my brothers and took a bunch of pictures of the dinner and the bar afterwards. I've been lazy about getting them developed though. I'll take care of that today, if I remember. My twin brother ended up getting completely hammered and tried to climb trees outside of the restaurant which in turn got the entire party cut off from alcohol. I think he was kinda proud of himself for doing that too. I, on the other hand thought it was pretty embarrasing. My mom and dad sat there shaking their heads as he made a complete ass out of himself. I had a great night though, everyone who mattered was there. It was awesome.

I managed to make my largest paycheck at my current job for these past 2 weeks. It's funny considering I only worked 2 days last week and everything else was covered. It really allowed me some time to get my head clear after all the partying that took place over the week of my birthday which JUST SO HAPPENED to fall on the same week as 2 of my good friend's 21st birthdays AND ST. PATTY'S DAY. My liver got a workout last week and now I'm letting it recoup from all of it.

I have to work the next 2 Saturdays at my job, which sucks but I DID get the last 2 Saturdays off so it's only fair. An eye for an eye, a Saturday for a Saturday. I might be going up to Lake Tahoe and staying at a friend's cabin with 11 other people during the first week or so of April also. Hopefully that works out, I haven't been to Tahoe in FOREVER so it'd be nice to go up there.

Tomorrow is Friday, Amen to that. 

So two weeks ago the gang and I plus my brother and his friends were supposed to go camping up at the East Park Reservoir in Stonyford. Turns out that the weather had other plans for us so we got stuck at home. I hate how rain can do that. After my meticulous planning...it's all ruined by RAIN. Well, the weather for this weekend looks wonderful so we're giving it another shot! It's going to be Tobi, April, Cole, Mike, Jesse, Sean, Chris, Ian and Zach. There will probably be more people interested in coming as these few days unfold. I'm excited! My last camping trip didn't go so well so I'm glad I get to do this trip with a bunch of people I love and I know I'll have a good time with. I'll be taking pictures too which I'll probably be posting on my myspace page so that's worth checking out I'd say. It's going to be a pretty rad time.

I can't believe it's only Wednesday too. It feels so Thursday-ish.

Ryan tagged me. So here goes, 7 things you all didn't know about me.

1. I have a HUGE fear or spiders. If one were to land/crawl onto me I immediantly freak out and rip off outer layers of clothing. I also can't return to the area where the spider was for at least an hour. I know, I'm weird. My brother used to chase me around the house with an enlarged picture of a spider's face when we were kids and it pretty much scarred me for life.

2. I love Indian and Thai food more than any other type of food because it's unique and has flavors that I haven't been tasting for my whole life. Give it a chance! I suggest trying Aloo Gobi (Indian) or Papaya salad (Thai).

3. I have 5 tattoos to date. A star on my right ankle, an ancient symbol meaning "repel all evil" on my left ankle (that I actually just got yesterday), an artistic rendering of the silouhette of a cat between my shoulder blades (it gets a lot of attention when I wear tank tops), an oak tree on the lower left of my back/side and a rose with my grandfather's intitals. They're addicting.

4. I'm in the process of growing my hair out to donate it to Locks of Love.

5. I've been ordering the same sandwich from all sandwich shops since...forever. Turkey, cheddar cheese, mayo, lettuce, tomato, cucumber and pepper on sourdough. It still tastes good so why change it?

6. I'm a great shot with a rifle. Been shooting guns for a few years now.

7. And lastly, depsite my exterior look I can scream and growl just as hard as the boys in the metal bands. It's shocked people in the past. I love metal!!

Okay, so now I suppose I'm suppose to tag 3 other people so I piiiiiick (eenie, meanie, mynie, mo...)

1. Maisy13
2. mcsteamyandme
3. Tilltheendoftime

Hopefully you all now have a better understanding of just who I am. That was actually kinda fun! Thanks Ryan!

I'd like to send a very special thank you to all the people who stopped by and left their condolences on my last blog. It meant a lot to me. I'm hanging in there but it has been hard over these past few days.

Again, thank you, thank you, thank you. You guys are great.

Rest in Peace
Esperanza Norris

1921-2007

I fell asleep pretty early last night. It was probably around 6 or 7 when I laid down in bed to watch my new CSI DVD from Netflix. Disc 8 of Season 2. I think it's the last disc in the season, I always feel somewhat accomplished when I finish a season too. Earlier yesterday I had gone out for my favorite drive around Wooden Valley Road and just as I turned a corner there was a hawk sitting in the middle of the road, just hanging out. He slowly opened his wings and flew right over my car. It was pretty cool, his wingspan was easily 8 feet, maybe more. I love all forms of nature.

As I had mentioned in my last entry, my grandma was pretty sick. Well, last night at 7:40PM she past away. I talked to my mom this morning before leaving for work since she was there when she died. She said the doctor was talking to her and my aunt about doing an autopsy on her since that's the only definitive way to tell if she really had Alzheimer's (which she did) and just as the doctor asked my mom there was an earthquake. A small earthquake, I actually felt it myself too. My mom smiled and said "I think she just answered for us." So no autopsy on my grandma. I prefer that myself too. They don't need to start cutting into her. I love my grandma very much. I thought a lot about her yesterday before I got the news and she's going to be in my thoughts for a while to come now. I realize also now that my mom and all her siblings no longer have their parents. My grandpa died 6 years ago and now my grandma yesterday. I don't know how I'm going to feel when MY parents die. I don't even want to think about it. Life is such a fragile thing. Rest in Peace Espi.

So this weekend was supposed to involve a camping trip. That didn't happen. The rain inevitably ruined our little vay-cay to Stonyford. Lame. I was really looking forward to it too. But alas, I wasn't interested in driving all the way down there when we wouldn't be able to do much more than sit in our tents. I like to explore when I'm camping. I like to hike. Essentially, I just love being in nature. Well, at least if the weather permits we'll have more greenery to look at when we go up there next, next weekend.

On a much sadder note....my grandma is dying. She's had Alzheimer's disease for the past 10 years and her health has slowly been declining for much of that time. In the past 6 months alone she's broken her hip and caught pneumonia twice. Her current health state is not a good one. She can no longer swallow food or water on her own and as a result has become severely dehydrated. Her sodium level is in the 160s and it's supposed to be in the 140 range. Years ago she signed documents stating that she didn't want to be kept alive by a feeding tube or anything of that nature so the sad truth is she's dying...and we can't help her. She's 86 years old and I know that's a good long life but I can't help but wish so many things could have unfolded differently for her. I wish she would have never gotten striken by Alzheimer's, I wish my grandfather hadn't left her with 6 kids to raise alone, I wish she still knew who I was. Alzheimer's has got to be one of the worst ways to watch a loved one go. These past few days have been pretty rough for my family as a result. I'm going to miss her like hell. She helped raise me as a child and for many, many reasons beyond that she's just...simply...amazing. I love her very much.

I'm getting an iPod. I'm finally submitting to technology and getting a device that I told myself in the beginning that I didn't need. When iPods first came out I didn't even want to give them a chance. Now, I have come to realize that I really in all truth need an iPod. I have 300+ CDs divided into 3 CD wallets so finding a CD while on the freeway can be...difficult...to say the least. Usually I have to deal with my current CD choice unless I have a co-pilot in the passenger seat who is willing to find a specific CD that could be in a variety of places (including my sunvisors and door panels) and it's really just gotten to the point of ridiculousity (yes, I just made that word up). I'm going for a nice 30 gig seeing as I will be buying a bunch of blank CDs and basically burning any songs/CDs that I don't have from 3 of my very musical friends who have a bit of everything together. No longer shall I be plagued with these CDs, NO LONGER!

The camping trip is all set for this weekend. It's going to rain in the place where we're headed but I've been looking forward to this for a week and I really just need to get away. Plus, it's not like a little rain ever hurt anyone. I'm thinking about heading over to Home Depot and picking up a tarp though. We're bringing up a bunch of firewood and beer so I don't think the rain will bother us to much...as long as it's not DUMPING, we'll manage. My brother had told me that he and his friends used a tarp to section off an area where they could stay dry and eat and what not so we'll have to do that again this time it looks like. I'm bringing a disposable camera and my digi-cam (if I remember) so I'll try to post some pictures of all the antics that take place when I make my triumphant return on Sunday.

Yay! One of my best friends who had moved to Washington a few years back just called me. We chatted for 30 minutes on all the goings on in our lives. I miss her like hell, hopefully she'll be able to come down and spend her 21st in her native California.

That's pretty much it, have a great weekend everyone! The sun is shining here in California so hopefully it's gotten to some of you who are still covered in snow too.

I paid the $100 deposit for my birthday dinner yesterday. I can't believe it's only 18 days away! Im starting to get more and more nervous about it. I try to make a big deal about my birthday when it rolls around each year. The way I see it, if I don't make a big deal about it...how do I know someone else will? Plus, I'm turning 21!! I went over the menu last night with my twin brother and we picked out a few things that we thought everyone would like. I figure if we just do pasta, sandwiches and pizza everyone will have something that they like to chose from. Plus, I have at least 4 vegatarians/vegans attending so I have to appeal to them too. AHH! I feel like I'm planning my wedding!

This weekend looks promising though. I've got a camping trip planned out with a big group of my friends, my brother and his friends. It looks like it's going to be a pretty good time.

Eh, this entry isn't anything special. I just felt like I oughta update.

My friend Ferdos and I intended to go to Rockville Park this weekend and that's exactly what we did yesterday. What a day to go too! It was beautiful! We actually ended up going onto Mike's property (which is his own personal Rockville) via his old, old Jeep. I mean, this thing is ancient. It's fun riding in it because it doesn't have a windshield or a top so you feel more open to everything your around. Everything was bright green and the weather was just right, not too hot, not too cold. It was t-shirt and jeans weather at it's finest. I wish that all of you could come to the place where we were at yesterday. It's like your in a dream almost. It's so beautiful that it must be. We sat on top of a hill on the property and just looked out at everything for a while before hopping back in the jeep.

Then, something great happened in that beautiful place. Three adults, played hide and seek. We did rock, paper, scissors for who would be "it" (a method still recognized by our group) and traipsed out onto the land to hide. Ferdos found me first and after a few minutes of her trying to find Mike and me feeling like we lost a  kid at a theme park I found him up a tree. He's like a monkey or something, he probably just flew up there too. It was all fun though. I can't wait until this weekend, I got 3 days off and I intend to use them for fun. My birthday is also in just 20 days now so I'm starting to stress about all the planning. Hopefully everything goes the way it's supposed to.

It's Monday, lame.

A 4% boost? 4%? C'MON! I know I've been slacking in contributions but I've been doing a lot of other stuff. The point system for this site is whack.

Boo, I'll be bumped up a level by Monday hopefully, the caveman lawyer emblem is starting to get to me for some reason.

The sun is shining here and everything is green from all the rain we just had, I can't wait for next week when I have another 3 day weekend so I can go to Rockville park and go for a hike or something. Enjoy your weekends everyone!

I freaking love Netflix.

I got disc 3 of season 2 yesterday and of course watched every episode back to back. I'd already seen all but one of the episodes. I'm sending the disc back today so hopefully I'll get something new by Saturday to provide me with my CSI fix.

Also, I don't know if I've established this or not yet but I think Gary Dourdan is smokin' hot. I was actually talking to a guy for a while who was kinda an untoned, not as gorgeous version of Gary Dourdan and there were a few times under blacklight, the glow of a TV and a few margaritas that I'd look at him and think it was Gary Dourdan. I guess nothing beats the real thing though.

Hope everyone had a fantastic Valentines Day!

Okay, so I'm not THAT kind of editor, but I'm still an editor! Yee! I was really surprised to see that no one had contributed anything to William Peterson's profile on here. I was just as surprised to see that if I'd only SCROLLED DOWN THE PAGE I would see that there was another profile for him that was well...complete. Oh well, maybe people will start checking out his other page so I don't feel like I'm an editor for a profile that no one is going to even try to submit anything to. Blah.

Over this past week I've experienced a lot of emotion from my guy friends. My best guy friend of 10+ years called me on the phone seeking advice and actually started crying on the phone with me for the first time. I was surprised, but also sort of happy that he felt close enough to me that he could cry on the phone with me and not feel any less "manly." He's SUCH an amazing guy too. I love him like a brother. I feel sorry for him because he's too nice to people sometimes and his true feelings about something get surpressed. Sometimes I just want to shake him and tell him the harsh realities of the world we live in but I don't know if he'd take it to heart. Also, just yesterday my other macho guy friend punched his steering wheel at full force (which I've never seen before) after a fight with his mom. Men showing their deep emotions doesn't happen like that very often in front of a girl and I was glad to know that they felt like they could do that in front of me. It's not like I would have made fun of them or called them any less of a man, especially considering that those two are the most manly of my man friends for a variety of reasons.

Okay, now I have to get back to work...blah! Happy Valentines Day!

I love the town that I live in. It's not too big, it's not too small. We're even the hometown of a few celebrities including Pat Morita (Mr. Miyagi), a stand up comic who's name I can't remember although I've seen him at Pepperbelly's (my town's comedy club which has had more than a few big names roll through) and of course The Federation, a rap group that's getting more and more notice. You could probably YouTube them to see their music video for 'Hyphy' although I haven't checked it should come up with something of theirs

Anyways, that reminds of another thing that I like about this town. There's a mix of country, suburb and a dash of city. There's a drive that I love going on down Gordon Valley Road that's truly breathtaking. I mean, it's nothing worth flying down here to see, but it's a drive that can bring you back down to reality. It's been raining here for the past few days and Sunday morning I woke up to a radiant sun and gleaming blue skies. Everything had been refreshed by a big drink of rain and nature's greenery glowed with a dreamlike aspect to it. I threw my hair into a messy bun, yanked on some basketball shorts, flip flops and one of my work sweatshirts and just got in my car and drove. My friend Ferdos had just made me a mix CD the day before so I jammed to that most of the drive. 'Beautiful' by Damian Marley feat Bobby Brown came on just as I was passing through a tree tunnel (trees on both sides of the road who's branches overlap each other in the middle to form...well...a tree tunnel) and I swear that's all it took for me to be in a fantastic mood all day. I'm a big fan of music in general and no matter what I can always seem to find a song that matches my mood or one that can bring my mood out of the dumps.

Hopefully all of you have something like this near you. A place that's just a drive away, where it's weird to see another car drive by and where nature's beauty grabs you and holds on tight.

Boo.

It is a known fact that I hate the rain. This time of year is never my favorite. It's weird because at the same time I can't stand the ultra hot heat of summer either. California summers are HOT. I mean, not Death Valley hot or anything (thank god) but last year I think we hit a high of 117 degrees. There was no escaping that heat. I would crank up the fan in my room to the highest setting and try not to die of overheating. Rain can be alright sometimes I guess but there are so many obstacles that rain creates. For example, my shoes that I wear to work have no grip whatsoever on their soles (not to mention they're pretty ugly, but my job is picky about footwear) so when I'm walking through the shop to go have a cigarette I run the risk of slipping and potentially injuring myself. Then there's the issue with smoking the cigarette as a whole. It gets all wet, sometimes even goes out mid-cig. That is unacceptable. Alright, alright...I GUESS we need the rain to support life and what not but if we didn't, I would do everything in my power (which wouldn't be that much) to limit the amount that comes down each day. A little rain, a sprinkle if you will is fine. BUT CONSTANT RAIN ALL DAY...No. I'll pass on that. I do like the way it smells outside after a good rain though, it's refreshing.

Now on to a completely different topic of discussion....

I keep thinking I'll have gone up a level each time I sign in and each time all I get is a little percentage boost. I've been posting like crazy in the forums for the past few days and no recognition but a mere 6% increase over all. Psh. I'm hoping to get another badge thing over the weekend too, we'll see!

So I'm pretty excited about March 12.

BECAUSE IT'S MY BIRTHDAY!!

I make a big deal about my birthday each year because it's special for me. It's my day! (well, technically it's me AND my twin brother's day but whatever). I'm especially excited about this year because I'm finally turning 21 and it's going to be the first time in years that me and Sean (my twin) have had a joint thing on our birthday. So far the plan is we're reserving the outdoor patio area at the Blue Frog Grog & Grill (one of our local restaurant/breweries) which carries a cost of $100 just for the reservation. It's such a nice outdoor area though. It's not even really "outdoors." There's 2 fire places inside and peek-a-boo style windows along the side which makes it okay for smoking cigarettes. AFTER A NICE MEAL WITH 50 OF OUR CLOSEST FRIENDS AND FAMILY MEMBERS...we're getting a party bus! Me, Sean and all of our friends are renting out a party bus and hitting up all the bars in SF or Sac (not sure yet). I'm soo excited! This is a big one and I can't wait for this month to blow by.

I've been raving about this to friends for a while now and I'm known for putting on one hell of a party (I'm a party planner) so the stakes are high and I've guaranteed everyone that they will be met. I can't wait!

I'll try not to keep talking about this in future blogs but I have to admit it's going to be hard with how much it's on my mind.

Something I'll never understand is why young girls wear the SKIMPIEST clothes on the coldest days. I am looking at a girl right now who is probably around 16 years old who is wearing a ultra mini skirt. Now, the best part is...she's wearing uggs, a clear declaration that she's well aware of the fact that it's 46 degrees outside which is definitly not skirt weather, let alone super short skirt weather.

I mean sure, I wore the short skirts, the little tank tops and all that when I was that age but I never wore it on a day like this. It's overcast on top of that too! By chosing the outfit that she's wearing this girl has agreed that she is okay getting completly drenched with rain and getting cold wind beating against her bare legs all day.

OH MY GOD! Another girl wearing a not so weather friendly outfit! What is going on here? Am I missing a trend?